Discourses of Dissent – Social Theory and the Politics of Austerity

A round table session from Discourses of Dissent exploring how social theory can help us understand the politics of austerity. How do theoretical justifications of austerity work to constrain public debate? How does the current government’s incongruous blend of neoliberal realism and superficial progressivism relate to what went before it? What resources can we find in social theory to critique the coalition’s agenda and it’s relationship to the wider crisis of late capitalism?

Social Theory and the Politics of Austerity

Ruth Levitas, University of Bristol – The necessity of utopian thinking

Sasha Roseneil, Birkbeck, University of London – Criticality, not paranoia: Registers of critical social theory

Karen Rowlingson, Institute of Applied Social Studies, University of Birmingham – Why doesn’t the British public seem to care about inequality or the cuts in public spending?